An idea began to form in the back of her mind that would completely disrupt Matron’s position in town and leave her near as vulnerable as the rest of them.
“Why don’t we move the mirror?” Billie said, turning her back on Matron. “If we’re all trapped within its radius, we could move it away from here. Take it back to Boston.”
“You shall not touch this mirror.” Matron’s voice boomed into the room.
Billie and Winn exchanged a look.
“You’ll regret it if you move the mirror,” Matron said, her voice once again in control.
Billie faced Matron, sensing the upper hand. “Why?”
“It’s in flux and if you move it, we will all be destroyed. This mirror is in the exact place it needs to be.”
Lou got up close to the mirror again. “What about this place is so special?” She touched the edges of the mirror as if trying to figure out how to pop it out of the wall.
“Every generation there is an opening. A window of opportunity when the mirror becomes clear like glass. The first time it happened I didn’t know what was going on, but the world felt closer, like I could almost touch it.” She reached out her hand like she was imagining plucking a flower. “But then it closed and became a mirror again.”
She focused on Lou. “I was never quite able to get out of the confines of this prison. It’s the copper in these hills providing a powerful conductor stretching the portal and making it thinner than it’s ever been.” She arched an eyebrow. “Passable.”
“How long do these windows of opportunity stay open?” Winn asked, his voice betraying his hope.
Matron shrugged. “It’s never stayed open this long. Perhaps we can go along like this for years. Perhaps days.” She stood close to the frame and peered down at Lou, who was still examining how to remove the mirror. “Until the portal closes, you can’t move it. You’ll risk losing your impetuous little cousin or the boy to the mirror. One of us will remain inside.”
“You would trade your life for one of these young ones, wouldn’t you?” Lou said.
Matron straightened her shoulders, growing in height. “Youth is easier to sway. I tried to pull you in, but you would never accept my gifts.”
“We should move the mirror this instant.” Billie said. “While she’s in there, let’s get it away from the copper so the window will close and she’ll be trapped.”
There was a rush, as of a wind, and then Matron was standing in the shack, her thin hands gripped around Billie’s neck.
Billie went up on her toes to lessen the strain Matron was putting on her windpipe. Panicked, she looked around for help, but Winn was back in the mirror, waving his arms, trying to keep his balance. He looked completely shocked, as did Matron.
“Not so fast, missy. I may not be completely free, but I know more about how that mirror works than either of you.”
“Let her go,” Lou said, cane raised.
Dismissing Lou, Matron leaned her face close to Billie’s. “Did you like how you felt in the mirror? An impression hard to describe, isn’t it? A longing for what you can’t touch, perhaps? The world as you know it is so close, but you can’t quite grasp it. When it becomes a full mirror again, you will be locked in with no freedom. You’ll choke from the oppression, like being in one of these mines with all of the mountain closing in on you and you have no escape. It won’t be me. I’ve worked too long and hard to fail now. Tread carefully, child.” With a shove, Matron let her go.
Billie struggled to bring in a breath. Not because her airway was being restricted, but because she was scared. Her pulse raced as her body reacted to Matron’s words. She knew the feeling Matron described all too well. It was the way she felt in the mines. If she could never escape the oppression, had no hope of escaping, being trapped in the mirror would drive her mad. She couldn’t let it happen.
“No. We can’t move it,” she said quietly. It was too risky. They’d need to find another way.
Chapter 40
“Wilhelmina, look at me.”
Billie did. Winn was inside the shack, on the other side of the mirror from her, but his face did not reflect the fear that was surely displayed on her face.
She and Winn had been in and out of the mirror countless times now, as puppets Matron moved around at will to show them she was in charge of them, if not the mirror. Whatever it was that had happened the day they confronted her, Matron had learned a new skill.
And every time Billie was in the mirror she had to fight the panic attacks Matron’s description had implanted in her mind. She was sure the window would turn into a mirror while she was in it, and then what would she do?
For her whole life and beyond she’d be locked away from the rest of the world. What would she eat? How would she find a drink? These were the mundane things that she focused on, and it was so crazy she didn’t know how to stop until she looked into Winn’s eyes. Winn’s gentle eyes that looked back at her with sadness and guilt. She couldn’t pull him down into this pit with her.
“Better?” he asked.
She nodded, her heart palpitations slowing. “Yes. It’s almost over.”
It had been hard for her to let Winn see her panic attacks at first, but after he’d shown her such tenderness and stayed with her, she learned to trust him. His granite exterior from when they first met was so different from the boy she’d come to know.
Boom.
Another blast went off in Uncle Dale’s mine, rattling Lou’s teacup in its saucer.
Lou wasn’t complaining much, but the proximity of her claim to Uncle Dale’s must have been bothering her. She was one who enjoyed solitude, but Billie’s uncle had increased his work on the claim by hiring an experienced hard rock miner. The Tarr brothers weren’t interested in working such a small claim and had gone back to Globe.
“This attack was longer,” Billie said. “I don’t know if I’ll have much time to look around today.”
Since their confrontation with Matron they were working together to explore the unending mist to see if there was another way out, or if they could learn more about how the mirror worked.
Since Matron seemed to have the ability to control more of her time out of the mirror, they were more determined than ever to figure out how she was doing it. Winn would sit with Billie and talk her through the panic attack, then talk her through exploring areas he’d not been in yet.
“Lou was thinking we should examine the frame again, anyway. When Matron attacked you, she was standing right there.”
“We’ve both looked at it a million times.”
“Maybe a million and one will do the trick.” He smiled encouragingly.
Fine. The frame hung suspended in space with nothing supporting it. Billie walked around it, but from the back, she could see nothing. Literally, it disappeared. The first time she’d discovered this, she’d worried that the frame was gone, but it can only be viewed from the front. From behind, she could reach her hand out to touch where it was supposed to be, but her hand went right through empty space.
When she went back around to the front, the mirror was visible and solid again.
Billie gripped both sides and tried to move the frame. She didn’t want to rip it away, lest she tear the boundary between worlds and be trapped inside, but she wanted to see how permanent it felt. It was as solid as the mountains. Perhaps they should try dynamite to blast the thing open.
Next, she looked at the top of the frame, examining each individual fairy and flower.
The winged fairies were the classic-looking creatures, the size of hummingbirds next to the flowers, and with impish smiles ending in tiny dimples. Carved from wood with thin copper hammered in place, the frame would have initially had that shiny copper color, but was now a dull green patina, with pieces flaking off.
The inside frame was so different from the plain outside frame. Had the side facing the shack been sporting fairies from the beginning, more people might have stumbled across the mirror. It might have been valued for its
art, if not its more mysterious qualities.
Billie tried to pull off the tiny fairy with the widest grin, but it was firmly attached. Maybe with more pressure it would detach, but breaking the frame probably wasn’t a good idea. Another little fairy had a cute, upturned nose which Billie rubbed. She blew a puff of air on a third.
“What are you doing?” Winn asked, amusement in his voice.
“Trying things. I don’t know what else to do.”
“All I see is your head bobbing in and out.” He laughed and demonstrated what she looked like from his point of view.
“I’m glad you find it amusing when you do the same thing when you’re in here.”
“I know, but I’m not as adorable as you.”
She made her way round to the pomegranate on the bottom and what she saw made her heart skip a beat. “Winn?”
“What?”
“The fairies at the bottom moved.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m pretty sure these little twins used to be leaning forward with their elbows on the pomegranate, but now they’re leaning backward on it. Do you remember what they’re supposed to look like?”
He disappeared from her view.
“Winn?”
He came back with a pencil and paper. “One way to find out. Let’s sketch the frame each time we’re in there and compare notes. Ready?”
He made like he was going to toss her the items.
She nodded. She’d never caught anything through the mirror before.
“Pencil first.” He tossed it to her. As the pencil pierced the glass, the surface rippled like water and allowed it through.
Winn tried to pass the paper next, but each time he brought it to the mirror it would bend, not pass through. In the end, he crumpled it into a ball and tossed it in like a baseball pitcher. “I used to play on the high school team,” he said. “Before all this.”
She caught the paper ball. “Darren said you were good. Maybe you’ll play again when this is all over.”
“I’m better at ball than drawing. We’ll see if my fairies look like anything other than stick people.”
“Stick people with wings,” Billie said.
He laughed, and the door opened. They both jumped as they weren’t expecting Lou back for hours yet. She’d insisted on going into town herself for some supplies and with the way she was hobbling, they expected she’d be gone for hours.
Knock, knock.
“Hello?” It was Uncle Dale tapping on the already opened door. He stepped into the room, taking his hat off. “Thought I heard voices.”
Winn closed the curtains. “That was me,” Winn said.
Billie squinted, trying to see through the curtains. What was her uncle doing here? She’d been sure to visit him each time she came out of the mirror so he wouldn’t become suspicious.
“Lou around?” Uncle Dale asked.
“In town. She’ll be back soon.”
“And Billie?”
Winn didn’t answer so he must have shrugged.
“It’s tough to catch her sometimes. Hope she isn’t settling in too much. You know we’re not staying long in town? She’s got school to finish. Her parents had plans in place for her. Plans they’ve had since she was a child. That’s not going to be a problem, is it?”
Billie’s face grew hot with embarrassment.
“No, sir,” Winn answered automatically.
“Send her to my claim when you see her next. I’ve got something to show her.”
“Yes, sir.”
The door clicked shut.
“Wait a moment,” Winn whispered. “I’ll make sure he’s gone.”
Meanwhile, Billie sketched the mirror. She was pretty sure the only fairies that had moved were those two at the bottom, but she wouldn’t know for sure until she mapped them out.
“Tell me your secrets,” she whispered to them. “Are you alive? Trapped like me?”
They remained frozen, their tiny mouths sealed shut. As Billie sketched the twins, she compared them to the other fairies. They wore the same draped bits of clothing, flowers in their hair, identical double wings, and their tiny faces carved to show details right down to eyelashes and everything.
“Imps,” she said, hoping to get a rise out of them, but nothing.
With their new plan to sketch the position of each fairy in the frame, they’d know soon enough if the carvings were significant. But before Billie could complete her mission of creating the first mirror sketch, she was unceremoniously pushed out of the window. She landed on the bed, her place in the mirror now occupied by Matron.
Winn helped Billie up, and after closing the gap in the curtain, they exited the shack. There was no use staying there when they knew Matron could be listening in.
“Uncle Dale is getting close with his mine. He said he found a vein that he thinks crosses down into Lou’s. Once he realizes there is no mirror hidden in there, he’ll be ready to move on. I’ll be forced to tell him I’ve decided to stay here. With Lou.”
“What about your mother?” Winn asked.
Billie searched his face. He knew too well what an awkward conversation that was going to be. But Billie had the advantage that her mother had heard the same stories she had growing up. She should be able to tell the truth and have her mother believe her. But then would her mother tell Uncle Dale? If his niece was trapped in a magic mirror, what would he do? It was best to keep the mirror a secret as much as possible.
“For one, we haven’t figured out how to get anything from this mirror, so I’ve no medicine to offer her. Secondly, school is starting soon, so she’ll want me back in Boston. I’ll have to tell her. She knows the stories, so she might believe me.”
“Would you believe unless you’d seen it?”
Billie shook her head. No way. How could anyone believe this? “She’ll think I want to stay because of a boy.”
Winn nudged her. “And don’t you?”
Had she not been tied to the mirror, would she have completely changed her life for a boy? For Winn? Maybe, not yet. Even she wasn’t irrepressibly romantic enough to deny everything in order to stay close to him. Her practical side would have kicked in and agreed to write copious letters to each other until they were older. But that wasn’t what Winn wanted to hear. He wasn’t even asking it.
She nudged him back and smiled. “I better go see what my uncle wants.”
“Don’t take too long. We’ve got plans in town.”
Chapter 41
Uncle Dale paced outside the hole he’d carved into the mountain, peered deep inside, then resumed pacing, wringing his hands.
Billie had never seen him so anxious.
“There you are,” he said, hearing her approach. “I’ve booked our trip for this weekend. It should give you enough time to say your goodbyes to the ah, friends, you’ve made while we’ve been here.”
Too soon! Billie knew it was coming, but there’s no way she could leave. “What about the mirror? Mom’s medicine?”
“Today’s the day.” He held up a piece of paper, blindingly white against his dusty hands. “Right of Apex. I found the vein, and Lou doesn’t have the money to go to court over it. I’ve got permission to cross over into her claim. We should know within minutes what she’s got in there.”
Billie stood stunned. Should she tell him about the mirror or not? Crossing over into Lou’s mine would be harmless as far as the mirror went, but Lou would be so angry to have him barge his way into her mine. Despite it being legal, it didn’t feel right what he was doing.
“I’m not going back to Boston,” she said to stall for time. “I’ve decided to live with Lou.”
He folded his document and shoved it into his shirt pocket. “You’re not serious. You really think you can live in a shack up on a mountain tucked away in a forgotten territory and be happy? You? Never.”
He knew her too well. “Arizona will be a state soon, you said so yourself.”
It was the only comeback she could thi
nk of. No, she didn’t want to live on the side of the mountain. She’d stay at the hotel, but that couldn’t be a long-term solution.
“It’s that boy, isn’t it? I never should have let my guard down. I didn’t mind you spending time with him, to help pull you out of your grief. I thought having a distraction would be good for you, but you can’t think you’ve got a future with him. What will your mother say?”
At that moment, the miner Uncle Dale had hired scrambled out of the hole.
“Stand back,” he said, his horseshoe mustache covered in a fine layer of dust. “Should be the final blast.”
They quickly moved away, and Billie covered her ears. Boom. A cloud of dust floated out of the hole. Well, one positive, thing: if that was the last blast, Lou would get her quiet life back.
Uncle Dale told his hired help to wait while he went in first to see if the way was cleared. He was gone awhile, leaving Billie and the miner outside with nothing to say.
“Looks like we might get some rain,” the miner said, staring up at the sky. Dark clouds gathered past the mountaintops.
Billie focused on the churning clouds. “Looks so,” she said. The clouds contained shades of white to gray to black, with golden patches where the sun shone upon them. Pretty, but ominous.
When he came out, Uncle Dale looked shocked. He hid it well for the hired help, but Billie recognized the furrowed brow for what it was. He shook the man’s hand and dismissed him. “I’ll see you at the Fish Pond later.”
Once the man was out of sight, Uncle Dale extended his arm. “Ready? Maybe you can help me make sense of this.”
Billie wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going into a recently blasted mine, but her curiosity was piqued. She clicked on her carbide light and took a deep breath. For Lou. She’d do it for Lou, to make sure a bad situation was handled well. She could report back all that her uncle did and help put Lou’s mind at ease.
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